


In their veins

by Lost_at_Sea



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, and then i got impatient, lolol, started as a slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 10:54:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14714700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_at_Sea/pseuds/Lost_at_Sea
Summary: Something about seeing the blonde get hit by that bus has taken all the fire out of her veins. It seems to have quenched it in Regina too...Janis gets a surprise after Spring Fling.





	In their veins

Damian drops her off after Spring Fling. Cady and Aaron went god knows where and Janis hasn’t really been interested in the after-dance-party-scene in… well ever. Her and Damian had had plans to hang out and binge-watch terrible movies after the dance, but one of those mathletes had winked at Damian across the room after Cady's speech when they were all dancing around... and who was Janis to stand in the way of that? So she waves goodbye to the two boys and rolls her eyes before turning towards her house. 

The lights are all off - her mom has to be up early in the morning and thought she was going to Damian’s - and the only way she can see to get to her door is the faint glow of the moon and light of the street lamp. She takes one step onto the porch, and a figure moves out of the shadow. It scares Janis half to death and she reaches for her keys before she recognizes who has appeared in the moonlight. 

To say that it was a surprise seeing Regina George - white fluffy dress and spinal halo still intact - standing on her porch after Spring Fling would be a vast understatement. Janis knows she probably looks like an idiot, with her keys between her fingers and her hand extended, but frozen with her mouth wide open, but there's not much else she can do. Regina's always been stunning and even in flats and with a spinal halo and what Janis would classify as a horrendous dress... she's gorgeous in the moonlight. But more than that... she's on Janis' porch.

Regina chuckles - not that weird weak little giggle she usually does, but a deep throaty chuckle. 

“Hey,” she says in that light breathy tone that’s always - for one reason or another - set Janis’ spine ramrod straight. 

“Ummm… Hi?” Janis usually prides herself on being a little more… articulate, but now she’s at a loss. She hates that even though Regina isn’t on her own turf, even though Regina just lost Spring Fling and had most of her life turned upside down, even though Regina is literally in a spinal-halo and looking very uncomfortable, that she has that insufferable smirk, that she's winning this conversation. That girl is unshakable - and in a way, it’s one of the things that Janis admires in her; not that she’d ever admit it. 

Regina takes a step further into the light and Janis shakes her hair out of her face, nervous. Regina looks Janis up and down once… twice, and Janis subconsciously tenses. 

“You look great, by the way.” 

Janis sincerely thinks she must be in a coma. Did she get hit by the bus and not Regina? She looks down slightly, at her black boots, her fishnets, her skirt. Her hand’s still extended and she can see the figures she painted on her sleeves and the edges of her ruffled white top. She undid her bowtie a while ago, and it’s hanging limply around her neck, she knows. She gives no fucks what people think about her, she loves her outfit, but never in a million years did she think Regina George would tell her she looks great in it. 

She squints her eyes, trying to decide if Regina is making fun of her, but while she’s got that smirk on her face, there’s no snark in her tone, and her eyes are open and honest in a way they haven’t been in a long time. 

Still, Janis can’t find it within herself to respond. It’s Regina’s uncomfortable shifting from one leg to the other - upper body completely still - that snaps her back into reality. 

“What are you doing here, Regina?”

Regina sighs, “Can I come in? I’ve been standing here for a while and well…” she tapers off, gesturing as best she can to her flower-covered spinal halo. 

A month ago Janis would have flipped Regina off and slammed the door. But something about seeing the blonde get hit by that bus has taken all the fire out of her veins. It seems to have quenched it in Regina too. And after Cady’s speech and how they all laughed and danced together…

She moves to the open the door, holds it open for Regina and then starts walking towards her room, on the lower level. It’s a split bedroom/studio for her down there and she can’t be more appreciative of her mom for letting her have it. “We’ll have to go down here and be relatively quiet, my moms got a deposition in the morning.” Regina doesn’t say anything, but toes her flats off and leaves them by the door, quietly following Janis to the stairs. 

“Um…” Regina says when she reaches the top of the steps - Janis is already halfway down but when Regina’s voice breaks and she clears her throat, Janis whips her head around. “I might need help down the stairs.” 

Shame burns brightly in Regina’s eyes and on her cheeks. Janis might have once taken this moment to ridicule Regina but she doesn’t. She simply takes the six stairs back up to Regina two at a time and extends her hand for Regina to put her own in. 

Regina - who had been staunchly avoiding eye contact with the taller girl - finally looks at her and Janis has to look away at the emotion she sees in Regina’s baby blues. Regina seems to sag a little and places her right hand in Janis’ left as Janis leads Regina down the stairs, slowly, walking sort-of backward to keep her eyes on the blonde and make sure she isn’t straining too much. 

When they make it to the last few steps, Regina seems tired - exhausted even - and her knees start to buckle a little. Janis slips behind her to support her and murmurs an “I’ve got you” into the space behind Regina’s right ear. It slips out unconsciously and Janis flushes deep red in a way she hasn't in a long time behind her. Janis imagines that if Regina had the ability to move her neck she might have whipped it around at that moment, but as it is, Regina just tenses up a little and almost trips. Janis grabs her a little tighter and stands a little closer as she leads the girl to sit on the edge of her bed. Once Regina’s sat down Janis realizes she didn’t breathe once the entire time. 

She takes a few steps back and grabs one of her artist stools and pulls it over near her bed. Seeing the girl, in her white dress with her spinal-halo sitting in the dark space of her room - walls covered in chalkboard paint and drawn over messily, black and white bedding, the smell of paint mixing with Janis’ favorite sandalwood candle she’d had on that evening as she got ready - well it’s quite the sight. 

Janis can’t take it, actually, so she casually - or as casually as she can - turns around, hesitating as she looks for something to make herself busy with. Her mind is whirring so loudly she almost doesn’t hear Regina speak. 

“You make me so mad.”

It’s barely a whisper, but it’s choked with emotions that, though she wants to freeze, Janis whips around. 

“What?” She means to spit it out, to seethe, and she can tell it lands when Regina’s face flinches. Then, it hardens. 

“You make me so mad!” And before Janis can interrupt Regina keeps going. “It’s just like, god, could you please get out of my head.” And then she’s ranting. “Like, every day it’s just like you’re constantly in my mind and I can’t ignore you no matter - god - no matter how much I want to. You’re just there with your complete disregard for me and you’re devil-may-care attitude and your absolutely hideous clothes that I really like.” Here she stands, awkwardly lifting herself off the bed, “and tonight with this damn… outfit, and your hair, and your goddamn smile, it’s like, wow Janis thanks for just making me go crazy. And I desperately want you to not be in my head, I don’t want to think about you, and I don’t want to think about you the way I do-“

“The way you do?” 

“- but here I am just a fucking mess, and it’s your fault, so yeah. You make me so fucking mad.”

And no Janis is angry too;

“Hold on a minute buddy, I don’t think we get to have this little “let’s yell at Janis for the trouble she put Regina through” session without addressing the fact that you made my life a living hell. I literally had to leave the school because of what you did - 

“I know.” Regina rolls her eyes

“No!” Janis shouts with enough force for Regina to recoil. It’s a picture she’d imagined a million times but never believed she’d achieve. “I don’t think you do. Do you know how many people told me that I should die? My Dad called for the first time in two years to tell me to figure my life out. I was twelve Regina and almost everyone in my life abandoned me. And at the time I didn’t even think it was true. I mean I guess I have you and two years of art therapy to thank for figuring out that yes I do like girls but that was not yours to tell people, and it was truly terrible. People are better now, no one really cares anymore, but those first few weeks... the petition...”

“I know,” Regina says softly. She’s looking at her hands and when she glances up at Janis, Janis is shaken to the core at the tears swimming in Regina’s eyes. “I should never have rolled with that rumor, and even though I was thirteen, and perhaps I didn’t know better, I did, and I’ve known better for years now and I never made up for it or apologized. And that’s… that’s kind of why I came, I wanted you to know that while I don’t know exactly what you went through I do know that it was because of me and that it was probably terrible and I am truly sorry.” She sucks in a deep breath. 

“I have this new philosophy - well not that new but anyway - that no one - especially women; but anyway - should apologize for things that aren’t their fault, and they shouldn’t apologize for their power or their attitudes. But, at some point that bled into me never apologizing for anything, and I really need to apologize for this. I know it’s like totally too little too late and you still being super pissed is totally valid, but I wanted to tell you I know I fucked up really badly and I want to try and… and fix it.”

Janis snaps a "You can't fix it." 

She stares at Regina, eyes swimming, open and vulnerable as she stares into Janis' eyes. And when Janis speaks again it’s with a truth she hadn’t realized until that moment. “I’m not pissed, Regina… I’m just hurt.” She shivers and sits on the stool. “You hurt me really badly, and I guess… I guess I’m still not really over it.”

“Makes sense.” Regina mumbles. 

“It’s just… Regina, you made me feel like I was crazy. One day we were best friends and the next day you were telling everyone that I was in love with you and a lesbian. And I was terrified and I was like, you know, I thought we were friends.”

“Janis,” Regina’s voice breaks so much she has to stop and swallow and clear her throat, “Janis… when we were thirteen my other friends told me we spent way too much time together and that our friendship was weird. And I knew what that meant, and I knew what it implied so I freaked out. And instead of standing up for you or our friendship…”

“You made your choice Regina, I was there.”

“But you don’t know why. I did it because, well, because I knew if they looked any harder at our friendship they’d realize you were the innocent party and I was the guilty one.”

The silence in Janis’ room is deafening. And honestly Janis is one of those people who staunchly disbelieves that silence can be deafening, but right now that’s all she can think. 

“What are you saying, Regina?”

“I didn’t…” She’s crying now and Janis is floored and flabbergasted. “I never… I never meant to fall for you, I just did… and… and I had no idea how to handle it, and no idea what to do when those girls came at me with those sneers.”

It takes Janis a while to process and respond and all the while Regina George with her perfect hair and her perfect body and her perfect eyes... is sitting there, mussed with a spinal-halo and tears streaming down her face and for some reason, Janis believes her. Perhaps it’s so absurd that she knows there’s no way this could be one elaborate joke, even she couldn’t come up with something like this. Not even Regina George could. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Oh come on.”

“No. Really.”

“Janis, by the time I could admit that to myself, you’d come back to school and you hated my guts, for good reason. And I was so wrapped up in keeping up the charade and so, shaken by your return that… all I could do was throw those walls up even higher.”

“I almost feel bad for you.”

“Don’t. I made my bed, and I made it with a lot of shit, and I laid in it.” She smirks, wiping her cheeks. “Nothing like a bus at 40 miles an hour to crash through all your walls though, right?” She winks. 

Janis finds herself chuckling despite herself. And then her brain catches up to her and puts everything Regina’s said back into place. 

“Wait…”

“There it is, and I thought you were supposed to be astute or something like that.” 

Regina’s teasing her, and Regina liked her… like that… maybe she still does.

“Do you… do you still…?”

“Do you want me to?” Regina’s standing now and she’s coming closer to Janis. She stops though after her question and she looks at Janis. She's still so open, sure she's teasing Janis now, but Regina's putting all her cards on the table. It scares her. 

“No."

But her voice breaks and she can't look Regina in the eye.

“You’re a terrible liar.”

Regina’s close enough to touch now and Janis scrambles off her stool and takes a step back. 

“Regina.” She says with enough serious terror in her voice to make Regina drop the smirk. “Why are you here?”

When Regina responds, Janis looks her right in the eye, and she can see the last of Regina’s walls come crumbling down. It looks like it hurts her, but here she is in Janis’ basement bedroom at half-past midnight after Spring Fling with the most honest eyes Janis has seen in a long time. 

“You’re the only person I wanted to be with tonight.”

When Janis’ brain catches up to her actions nearly ten seconds later she realizes she must have grabbed Regina and pulled her against her. A small part of her hopes she didn’t hurt the girl, but most of her is enveloped in the feeling of Regina’s lips on hers, of Regina’s hands on her jaw, of Regina’s back under her fingers, of Regina’s hips against hers, and she doesn’t think she could process anything else but this. 

And maybe she thought that bus drained the fire out of her veins, and Regina’s too, but this… this moment has lit her aflame again.


End file.
